From The Time Of Heroes
by inkvoices
Summary: A long time later a boy takes a girl to Diagon Alley on a date.


They stroll down Diagon Alley arm in arm, a girl and a boy on a date, past the restaurants he can't afford to take her in and the most upmarket shops in the Wizarding World where they can't afford to buy anything.

It doesn't really matter. Most of the people that come to the Alley these days are only here to window shop, or to see landmarks like Gringotts and the headquarters of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. They do their real shopping in Hogsmeade or the Edinburgh Wizarding Markets, where actually you can get a lot of old Weasleys' jokes on the cheap. They don't have the surprise value of the newest ones, but the classics never die.

The north-south divide, its very existence debated by Muggles, is painfully evident in Wizarding Britain. After the Second Voldemort Rising a lot of money was channelled into the London area as part of the rebuilding effort. In fact, apart from Hogwarts very little outside of the London area received any funding from the Ministry and it shows. To be fair the money did go to some of the most damaged places, but generations later Wizarding hamlets around the country are still scarred whilst Diagon Alley looks more than magical, like stepping into a fairytale.

Hogwarts does fieldtrips to the Alley for new students, and their parents, before they start their first year to give them a taste of one of the best places a magical education can lead to. The tour always ends at the Weasleys' where if you show your acceptance letter they give you free sweets.

They look at the window displays for the Weasleys' as they pass by, but they don't slow down. He's heard that girls like shops, but this one doesn't seem particularly interested, even in the fun shops. Luckily that's not what they're here for.

It's cool and quiet inside the British Museum of Magical History. They pass only a handful of people as they climb the marble staircase to the War Exhibit on the first floor.

There are quite a few items from the First Voldemort Rising, but it's those from the Second Rising that everyone loves to stare at. The ones from the time of heroes.

His favourite display is a collection of photographs by Colin Creevey. A Muggleborn, Creevey documented his student days through an artistic medium uncommon at the time and he had a habit of gifting most of his efforts to friends, so whilst the collection started off small it continues to grow as more photographs are gifted to the museum.

The latest additions are from a school Quidditch game, but his favourite is still the one captioned simply 'The Last Photograph'. It was still undeveloped, the last image on Creevey's last roll of film when his camera was discovered at The Hog's Head. Like the ones before it, it shows a mixed group of people preparing to join the forthcoming battle, a whole range of emotions expressed on their faces, but it's the very last photograph and the only one from that roll of film that contains Creevey's younger brother.

In pride of place at the centre of the exhibition hall is a portrait of the famous Harry Potter himself, painted when he was with the Aurors, surrounded by example newspaper clippings from _The Daily Prophet _and original copies of _The Quibbler_. There's also a headstone they say Harry Potter was once tied to whilst Voldemort stole his blood, a basilisk fang from a creature Harry Potter killed that was later used to destroy an object of dark magic in an act vital to the winning of the war, a tea set used by the Order of the Pheonix, and a coin from Dumbledore's Army.

They explore a replica of the tent Potter and his friends lived in whilst in hiding and he gets the impression that she likes camping about as much as she likes shops.

What he's really brought her here to see is a book: Hermione Granger's first copy of _Hogwarts: A History_, bequeathed to the museum on her death. He'd have to be an idiot not to realise how much she loves books and this is a special one. Whenever a new edition of the _History_ is released it becomes practically impossible to find a copy of the previous editions and this is one of the oldest on public display.

She's mentioned as well that Granger might be an ancestor of hers.

The thing is that no one keeps proper records of their family any more, people having swiftly moved away from any traditions associated with the old Pureblood practises. It'd take a lot of work to figure out her family tree that far back, if it could even be done at all. Still, she spends a lot of time looking at it. The display case is spelled so that when instructed a mechanical hand inside turns the pages and she lingers longest on the section about the ceiling in Hogwarts' Great Hall, which looks like it was well-read long before it came to rest here.

Eventually she says that Hermione was a witch who liked books and that's all that matters. He guesses you take your role models where you find them.

He asks if she wants to take a look at the gallery of mounted House Elf heads on the fourth floor. He figures if she gets scared he can wrap an arm around her in a comforting manner and that if she doesn't get scared then that's fine too.

She weaves her fingers between his and stares at the book for a moment longer before letting him tug her away.


End file.
